This Plasma-Powered Engine Can Get Astronauts To Mars Three-Time Faster

Engineers from several organizations, including NASA, the U.S’s space agency, are looking into the possibility of a technology that can lessen the time we need to get to Mars.

One of the proposals that have lots of potentials is the plasma-powered engine that can get us to the Red Planet and beyond.

SpaceX and NASA are facing steep competition from Ad Astra, a startup founded by Franklin Chang Diaz, a former astronaut, and several physicists. They have made lots of progress in developing a plasma rocket engine, named VASIMR. The tech has the potential to allow a large crew to reach the Red Planet three-time faster than our current technology.

The idea of a plasma engine was born when Ad Astra’s former-astronaut founder was on missions with NASA. He is also a Ph.D. in plasma physics. If this technology makes it to reality, it might pave the way for a new era of space exploration.

Conventional rockets burn materials like oxygen and hydrogen, which creates thrust. A plasma engine does not work in the same way a combustion engine does, rather, it uses electromagnetic fields to heat the gas up. The maximum temperature the new engine can create is millions of degrees higher than what we are using. This means we will have a far more powerful thrust for the rocket.

If things go according to Change Diaz’s plan, astronauts can reach Mars three-time faster than usual. A nuclear reactor will power the VASIMR engine, the same technology we see in nuclear submarines.

It is estimated that the new engine can deliver up to 60 tons of merchandise to Mars in merely 90 days.